Blogs from Nijmegen, Gelderland, Netherlands, Europe - page 2

Well this is it people the last blog from an awesome trip to europe. Even though I'm home already I figured I should still finish it, mainly because the last week in holland was awesome fun (as usual.) After the marathon train ride back to Nijmegen Melissa cooked up a feed while we got out stuff organised, then we went out for drinks with two of Melissa's mates Hans and Maria. Everyone was pretty knackered so after a kebab on the way home we hit the sack ready for an early morning train to Harderwijk where Melissa's parents have a holiday house. So regulation we were late to leave and didn't get to Harderwijk till a bit late but we went into town to try the local specialties of smoked eel and raw herring with raw ... read more

The Nijmegan International Four Day March (also known as Vierdaagse) is the worlds largest marching event. When I got asked if I wanted to go to Nijmegan in Holland for a week with work and I wouldn't actually have to do any work all I would need is spending money I thought what’s the catch "We take part in a four day march to improve relations but we spend eight days out there in total so it's a nice break" I got told, I walk a lot anyway, how hard could it be......VERY HARD! 200km over four days, that’s 50km (around 32 miles) A DAY for four days! In the previous years that people had entered the march there were always a few that dropped out/were pulled out due to injury, nine of us went to ... read more

Duisberg = Millengen on the Rhein (Netherlands), 97.40kms, Total 2264.8kms, Ride time Unknown I suspected that the day wasn't going to start so well when I asked the lady at reception to confirm that to get to the Orsoy Ferry, I should just go out along the Industrial Park, turn right and then follow highway 8. No she said, I should go left. She then went and got an english speaking cyclist who worked there to explain the way for me, "It's simple, go out here, go left at the road, at the second lights, go left, go under the highway, through a tunel, and you'll get to a T Junction, go left, you'll come to another T Junctoin, go right, then left ..." seriously he went on like this for another 2 minutes whilst ... read more

Excuse me while I dismount from my bike, put my bunch of tulips down and remove my clogs. Ooh, they're a bit sticky after falling into the canal though! Almost sounds like we couldn't leave Ghent. It was hard, but our love of putting ourselves in difficult situations won us over again and we set off down the cobbled streets with our matching bags in tow, our matching side satchels hanging jauntily across our rumps, and our matching tourist unease about what tram or train to get on clearly visible to all. I should mention that I did find an incredibly ugly building whilst out walking in one of the newer areas, as we all know you cant stop progress! It's Thursday, and we have to get to Antwerpen because an old acquaintance of Lindo has ... read more

After the best sleep I've had since leaving home in a nice big double bed, Jaap and Els took me to visit a nearby WWII Museum. I don't know much about war history, but more and more on this trip I'm enjoying learning about the history of places I'm visiting. To start out I joined a guide. He was giving the tour in Dutch so that idea didn't last too long! I ended up making my own way round the museum. Luckily all the display information was in English too. I didn't even consider it might only be in Dutch, since everyone in Amsterdam spoke English. It was really interesting reading the war history of Nimegen especially. It gave me an idea of what my grandparents lived through back in the 1940's. ... read more